The Myamoto Project
by Shadsie
Summary: A dramatic science fiction adventure. Giovanni conducts a most interesting project in genetics that has dire consequences for Jessie and James. Relationships are tried, and the very nature of life itself comes into question.
1. Genesis

  
  
SHADOWCAT'S FIRST NOTE: For those reading on Fanfiction Network, I have decided to put this story here to see what kind of feedback I will get on it. It is to be an ongoing Series. For those who know me from The Fanfiction Network (www.fanfic.net) which is now defunct and have been wondering where to find my other stories, go to "Shadowcat's Suite" http://members.dencity.com/caferocket/scsuite.html That is pretty much where I post my stories now. I don't frequent this site, so I don't have much of an interest in putting ALL my work here. For instance, I have been thinking of continuing my "Team Rocket Motto" Series, but I will probably will not post those here...  
  
  
  
Shadowcat's General Notes: This story, will be pretty short for now, but I'm planning this to become a Series (Will write further stories as I get ideas). This is Story One. It is strange, almost "X-Filesh" and has some of elements of "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley in it. It plays with ideas that we've probably all had about the Joys and Jennys and was inspired by discussions of them on two message-boards that I frequent, the board at Team Rocket Headquarters NEXT and the board at Team Rocket Palace. I would like to thank "Sgt. Giggles" of the TR Palace board for inspiring this fanfic, with the comment about the Joys and Jennys possibly being cloned to be "perfect civil servants". This fic wouldn't have happened without you! This is kinda dark, PG-13 I'd say as far as a rating and bizarre, which is typical of my work...  
  
  
Also, most of the information concerning Myamoto (Jessie of Team Rocket's mother, in case you didn't know already) I got here: http://leto.sailorsaturn.com/flame/ It is a wonderful little Jessie shrine run by a webmistress who goes by the name of Leto. The most informative and detailed site on Jessie I've seen.  
  
  
ADDITIONAL NOTE: New information on Myamoto has come to my attention. There is a translation of "The Birth of Mewtwo" made available on June 5, 2000. It can be read here. http://members.tripod.com/~pmtranslation/birth-of-mewtwo.html  
  
I wrote this series before that came out, so there are some discrepancies. Giovanni/Sakaki's age, for example, when Madame Boss and Myamoto are speaking about their children, Madame Boss refers to him as a "brat boy". In my story, Gio's a bit older and used to be Mya's Team Rocket partner. Also, this tale goes by the assumption on the part of everyone that Myamoto died in that avalanche in the first CD episode. Just think of my story as taking place in an alternate "Pokemon" universe.   
  
  
  
  
"THE MYAMOTO PROJECT"  
  
  
Story One: Genesis  
  
  
  
  
  
He stared into the glass, running his hand down its smooth surface, as if he were stroking a treasured pet. He looked at his reflection, his slicked-back obsidian black hair appearing almost sienna in the dim light and against the pale brownish-green fluid in the cylinder. Her frail and naked form was almost completely fleshed out; she stared at him with dead eyes.  
  
  
  
"It won't be long, now;" he whispered; "Soon you will breathe. How I have missed you, oh, how I have missed you."  
  
  
  
Giovanni slowly walked down the darkened corridor, leaving the Cloning Lab in silence.   
  
  
  
She was only two years younger than he was when she had died. They both were up-and-coming members of Team Rocket when Mother had sent her to the Andes to find the legendary pokemon, Mew. She had never returned. Mother had sent a lesser agent to inform her husband and young daughter of the tragedy, but Giovanni was one of the first to hear.   
  
  
  
It had been a devastating loss for all of the Organization, for she was its best agent. Giovanni had supposed that had not the tragedy occurred, she would have been his Mother's successor as the Boss of Team Rocket instead of him. He had been her Partner, and he ran Team Rocket the same way as his Mother had in the old days, with Partners. He had longed to be more than a Partner to her back in his youth, but she had married another man...still, he felt a great love-a great longing for her, and a very deep friendship. He had felt a great deal of guilt that he had not gone with her to the Andes...not died with her in that avalanche, but that was the past. Giovanni looked toward the future.  
  
  
  
"Oh, Mya..." he sighed as he slowly closed the Lab's great steel door behind him. She would not be...quite the same as the woman he once knew. They never were. Giovanni knew that it was that way with the Jennys and Joys.  
  
  
  
Back in the annals of the History of Team Rocket, the Organization had not always been devoted to criminal activity. It had once worked with the law; it had been organized to better society. The Team was still trying to do that now, but now, society was against them, and so they had gone underground and turned criminal.  
  
  
  
When the Team had worked with the law was back when Grandfather was The Boss. He was a brilliant biologist, pokeologist, and geneticist. The Team had started as a group of Scientists he had organized, his colleagues who had taught at universities and who had run Pokemon Research Institutes-way back when only 80 species of the monsters had been discovered...  
  
  
  
These elite were far more advanced in their fields than the world ever knew, and secretly, they met and worked with high-level people in government and social service positions, with the goal of helping society run smoother for both people and pokemon alike.   
  
  
  
It started with the creation of stronger pokemon-for the Police Forces. They needed dogs that had better senses of smell, of hearing, and more muscle-mass for the finding and apprehension of criminal suspects. Team Rocket took the basic Growlithe-and created a Super-Canine. Unfortunately, it did not turn out as hoped. The dogs became aggressive, turning on their trainers. Their mental capacities were unstable, they were fine as pups, but as they grew older, would become insane, as if rabid. Their brains would break down. Something in the spliced recipe was not working, a part having to do with the Growlithe brain.  
  
  
  
There was more success with human DNA, however. There were two women who volunteered for the experiments. Renowned Pokemon R.N. Joy Happenstance and Commissioner Jennifer Justicia of the Viridian City Police Department. They gave blood and tissue samples-for clones of themselves. The idea of Team Rocket was to create the world's perfect force of civil servants. Ms. Happenstance and Ms. Justicia were the tops in their fields.   
  
  
  
The human project had gone a lot better than Project Canis. The clones were viable, and the young Joys and Jennies lived and grew with no problems. Grandfather and his small syndicate raised that First Generation. The young clones were given growth hormones during their gestation period, so as to mature them in a short amount of time, so that they would be ready for service within a few short years, and so that Team Rocket could see the results of the first experiments quickly.   
  
  
  
The Joy and Jenny clones were "conditioned" for their future occupations very carefully. The Joys were exposed to pokemon and taught how to care for them, while the Jennys were encouraged to play games like "Cops and Robbers", and were taught the importance of helping innocent people and punishing the guilty. The girls were also put in special bedchambers to sleep in at night, where taped messages conveying to them their desired values were played to them in soft, almost inaudible sound over speakers as they slept.  
  
  
  
Ever since then, the cloning procedures for the Joys and Jennys had continued, even though now no longer sponsored by Team Rocket, but by the councils of a few of the major cities and by the older Joys and Jennys themselves.   
  
  
  
All the Joys and Jennys now were raised in two large "families", with the young members (newly de-canted) being raised by the older members, including a very few male clones "Roys" and "Kennys". The young Joys and Jennys were never told of their origins, and were raised as if they had come about by natural birth, within "normal" families. Many of the elder Joys, Jennys, Roys and Kennys would change their names and their appearances slightly to keep the Family Secret.   
  
  
  
This way, they would grow up believing that they were normal (except for the fact that they had some siblings and several cousins and aunts that looked strikingly similar to them and bore the same name). The semblance of normalcy allowed them to do their destined jobs much better than if they had known the truth. This also caused them to avoid becoming pariahs, as, if society ever found out, they would probably face much discrimination for being "freaks". The growth process in the clones was necessarily slowed down to that of the normal human maturity rate. And a Joy or a Jenny would learn the family secret as to continue their respective races no sooner than their 37 nth birthday.   
  
  
  
Team Rocket, for reasons that were never made clear, went underground and criminal in the later years of Grandfather's life, and continued that way through Mother's, and now Giovanni's. The Organization still continued certain experiments, and the goal of "bettering society", in its own ways. The Team was much, much larger than it had been in its early days, growing in strength and branching out worldwide. Most of its members, petty thugs, often young people, hired off the streets for the promise of excitement and a few dollars because they had no hope, knew nothing of what its shadowed inner workings were.   
  
  
  
Pokemon that were brought to Boss Giovanni he either used for his personal collection (used for pokemon battling, his hobby) or for the research and experimentation of Team Rocket's geneticists. The rare ones often went to the Labs. Team Rocket had been trying for a very long time to create the "perfect" pokemon. They had almost succeeded with Mewtwo.   
  
  
  
The Doctor who worked on the Mewtwo Project had also attempted to clone his own daughter, who had died in an automobile accident. He, however, wanted to re-create the REAL her. The Joy and Jenny clones had been a success, but only because they were not...exact...copies of the original Joy Happenstance and Jenny Justicia. They were different in subtle, but numerous ways. AiTwo-the exact copy of her namesake-proved unstable. The project was a tragic failure.  
  
  
  
Team Rocket and Giovanni, had set their sights on a new Project. The Team was plagued within its ranks with incompetents. Agents were frequently getting caught by the Police (poor Jennys who knew not that they owed Team Rocket their existence) or were just constantly failing in their assignments. Giovanni sighed sitting at his desk as he thought of Myamoto's daughter-she had proved to be one of those hopeless incompetents, a disgrace to her mother's memory.   
  
  
  
If the Project was a success, it would be the dawn of a new era for Team Rocket. The Plan was to create an army of the "perfect" Team Rocket agents, soldiers who would be absolutely loyal, competent, and reliable.   
  
  
  
Team Rocket kept not only extensive files on all members, created when they joined, but also took and kept on file blood samples. Many new members asked why they had to have their blood drawn while Officially Joining, and were told that they were simply being screened for information concerning their health-should they ever be hurt and need of medical attention-to collect vital health data such as their blood type. It was a lie. This was to keep tabs on everybody, used as a genetic-identifier system. Every Rocket, past and present, was on file.  
  
  
  
For the Project, only the people who had been the very best Team Rocket agents were considered. Myamoto Lillis had been the Best the Organization had ever known. Intelligent, athletic, skilled, and loyal. For the Project, the "in-utero" growth hormones that were used on the First Generation Joys and Jennys were put back into use, so the First Clone could grow quickly and be studied before going ahead with any more. MyamotoTwo would have to be dubbed a "success" before the risky business of raising an entire army of "perfect" agents. She would have to be trained, treated as a child at first, though she would emerge from her tank in an adult body.   
  
  
  
Giovanni sighed as he sat at his desk in his Main Office, going over paperwork while he poured over the many thoughts and memories flying about his mind. He would have his Myamoto back, in a sense, but she would not be the same. She would have none of the memories, and her personality would necessarily be slightly different.  
  
  
  
Suddenly, Giovanni's desk phone rang. He picked up the receiver to hear the voice of Dr. Smith, one of his Head Geneticists.  
  
  
  
"Hello?" He said, voice quavering with excitement and fear at the same time.  
  
  
  
"Sir;" came the answer; "Sir, we believe she's ready..."  
  
  
  
  
  
THE END  
  
  
  
  
Shadowcat, 2000.   
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Soldier

Shadowcat's Notes: He, he, the second story of "The Myamoto Project". This, I plan to be an ongoing Series, that I'll write stories for as I get the ideas for them, and it will just go on until I decide I get tired of it. Before reading this story, read the first, "The Myamoto Project: Story One: Genesis". This fic, like the last, is rated PG-13. This tale involves guns and blood, so if you are squeamish about that, you've been warned. Now, on with the story! 

THE MYAMOTO PROJECT 

Story Two: Soldier 

She leapt the barbed-wire fence with the grace of a wild gazelle (or a Rapidash). She climbed the rock wall with the ease of a leopard (or a Persian) scaling a tree, only to, like a cat, make a perfect landing on her feet when she dropped down the opposite side. 

Giovanni watched her train in the great yard of the hidden Viridian Forest Base. The scientists had done well. She was a masterpiece of ART. She WAS Myamoto. 

Save for one feature: She had none of the Memories. It had been close to six months since the lithe, purple-haired young woman took her first breath upon emerging from the nurturing fluids of her Gestation Tank. 

The geneticists and the medical staff, after extensive physical testing, confirmed her toe be a success. Her cellular structure was stable, and her body was as healthy as any typical woman in her twenties. She was much the same as a Joy or a Jenny in that respect. 

The mental testing and training began. Myamoto had some of the memories of her long-dead forebear, but only as far as the "how" of some things-how to best accomplish certain tasks set before her. Her life, death, relational ties-were complete oblivion. 

She was like a very young child at first, a toddler, learning how to speak, accomplishing motor skills, but she learned quickly. 

Smart as a whip-as the old saying went-Giovanni mused. Just like the old Myamoto. After only six months, Giovanni felt that it was time to see how she would do in the field. He had planned an exquisite First Assignment to test Team Rocket's new "ultimate soldier". 

The original Myamoto never had a willingness to kill. She was the greatest field soldier that the Team had ever had, but she had always managed to accomplish her assignments without blood. 

It was a harsher world now, The Boss surmised, so many against the Team-and it would increase. Many members, not all, but most, carried guns. Mya had taken well to her firearm training, but she needed a challenge besides inanimate objects to truly test her capabilities. (And those of the clones to come after her). 

This would also be a test to be completely sure that the clone would bear none of the knowledge of the life of the original, which would compromise the Master Plan. Had the Joys and Jennys bore the same memories and exact mental processes of the original Joy Happenstance and Jenny Justicia, they would never have been able to be the army of perfect civil servants that they were. 

Myamoto stepped into Giovanni's office after her training session, obeying her summons. She had a partial knowledge of who she was-that she was a Copy-and that she was destined to become the perfect Team Rocket member. Giovanni explained to her everything that she needed to know. She loved Giovanni, would do anything for Giovanni, for Giovanni was Father. 

"Gio, you needed me?" 

"Yes, Mya, come, I must show you something." 

Giovanni led Myamoto to a large computer console. He punched a few buttons. A picture accompanied by text appeared on the enormous screen, a Team Rocket member profile. 

"Do you know who this is, Myamoto?" Giovanni asked. 

"No;" replied Myamoto. 

"This is Jessica Mushashi Lillis, better known as 'Jessie'. She and her partner;" Giovanni pressed two more buttons and a smaller photograph and profile appeared on the screen, in the bottom right-side corner; "James Kojiro Rochester, have been...shall we say...dead weight in our organization as of late. I am setting before you a small task, Myamoto, a test of your skills. You are to kill Jessie Lillis." 

"And her partner?" 

"If he gets in the way. They keep a Meowth with them. He used to be my favored pet. If possible, I would like him to remain unharmed. But kill him, too, if it becomes necessary. I will show you the coordinates of the location from whence they last contacted me. They should be somewhere in that proximity." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Somewhere in the forest of the Mount Moon Range, a trio of Team Rocket members had made their camp for the evening. The Pikachu that they were pursuing, its Trainer, and his friends, the "Twerps", were somewhere in the mountain range, on their way to visit an old friend that lived in Mount Moon's caverns. 

It had already grown dark and the stars were beginning to appear in the eastern sky. James and Meowth were laying out on top of their soft sleeping bags while Jessie got up from her seated position by the campfire to fetch some water from a nearby stream to make the night's stew. 

Just as she had risen and walked but a few paces, a sound like a firecracker going off resounded among the trees and Jessie collapsed to the ground, clutching her stomach. 

"JESSIEEEE!!!" James screamed as he ran to his fallen friend, sprawled upon the ground. Meowth saw a shadow among the bushes and ran into the forest after it! 

"Jessie! Jessie!" James cried as he turned Jessie onto her back, seeing a shocking amount of blood seeping from a gunshot wound a few inches below the "R" of her jacket-chest. 

"J-ames?" she croaked; "Wha-what happened?" 

A bullet whizzed by James' head. He whipped around to see a shadow standing in the forest, only to quickly vanish! He leapt to his feet and sped after it. 

"Who are you?!" he demanded; "Why are you shooting at us?!" 

He was answered by two explosions of pain in his chest. He stood stone still for a moment, then sunk to his knees before sliding lifeless to the forest floor. 

"James! No!" Jessie called out after she saw her partner chase after the dark figure behind the trees. She, unable to stand, dragged herself over the loam and rotting leaves with her arms, gasping as she choked and vomited up spurts of dark ruby blood. 

She stared up as she saw something appear in the dim firelight, a tall figure carrying in its arms the limp form of James! The figure deposited him as a rumpled and bleeding heap on the ground before her. Jessie's vision became bleary as she helplessly watched the figure level a gun shaft at her head and she saw the assassin's face. 

"Mother?" 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Harsh, bright lights seared painfully into her vision as she slowly opened her eyes. Jessie found herself in a hospital bed, awful plastic tubes projecting from the flesh of her right arm, monitors beeping and blipping all around her. 

She felt a dull, throbbing ache in her stomach and her head hurt as it had never pained her before. She winced as she felt the veins in her temples pulse. A pair of gentle brown eyes gazed down at her. 

"You're awake. Thank God." 

"M-M-Mondo?" Jessie choked. 

"It's me." 

Foggy fleeting memories flashed in Jessie's mind. Vague pictures of the forest, of a shadow, of...oh, God, please, no!!!" 

"J-ames?" Jessie asked in a weak whisper. 

"H-he;" Mondo stuttered; "is alive, but I'm not sure you should see him yet." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Meowth traversed the forest of the Mount Moon range, headed for the Viridian Forest. He had set himself upon a mission. 

He had watched as an assassin sniper-shot his only two friends in the world a few nights ago. He had watched in solemn silence when Mondo had run into their campsite, alerted by the sound of gunfire, with, of all people, Officer Jenny of the Mount Moon Patrol. 

Mondo had not camped very far away. Meowth had not even known that he was following them this time. The youth was Jessie and James' Assistant, but Meowth thought that he was assisting another Team Rocket grouping that month. Perhaps, they had did not require his services and he decided to follow them for a while. He, did, after all, have a little crush on Jessie. 

They had ran into the clearing just as the assassin was about to put a bullet in Jessie's head as she lay unconscious on the forest dirt. The shadow-woman disappeared into the forest as soon as she saw Jenny, the brave Police Officer pursuing her with her own weapon drawn. 

Mondo knelt beside the prone and heavily bleeding forms of Jessie and James, checking for signs of life, administering what help he could, and calling an ambulance on his cellular phone. 

Meowth looked on as the ambulance helicopter arrived and as Jessie and James were placed on stretchers, loaded into the back of the aircraft and flown away. They must have still been alive, but the both LOOKED dead. Meowth did not know if they had survived after that. 

He was going to a secret Rocket Base he knew of in Viridian. He had to. He had seen the assassin. Though he did not believe it possible, he knew who she was. 

When Boss Giovanni had first taken him in off the streets as a pet, Meowth had learned Team Rocket history well. That man must have tired from having to keep secrets from people all the time, from society, from lower members of Team Rocket, because he used to tell Meowth almost everything! 

Meowth had always been very good at keeping confidentiality, but he supposed that maybe the fact that he could talk in human tongue was part of the reason that his Master preferred that Persian now... 

He had seen the Records. Myamoto had been the Best. She had died in an avalanche years before he was born. He also knew of a certain project that Giovanni had dreamed about-but never undertook-a project similar to the Joy/Jenny Project that Meowth had learned Team Rocket was behind... 

Could The Boss have gone ahead with the Project? The Myamoto Project? If so, it had to be stopped! It was just...too risky. An army of "perfect Team Rocket soldiers"-too dangerous, especially after that incident a few nights ago. Was ol' Gio sending them not only to replace but also to ELIMINATE other Rockets? 

Meowth determined himself to discover the truth. For the sake of the only two friends he had ever known, or, if the case may be, for the sake of honoring their memories. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Jessie sat at James' bedside, the flesh of her abdomen still soft and painful from her bullet-wound. Thankfully, there had been little swelling and she was beginning to be able to walk. 

It had been several days since she had awakened in Vermilion City Hospital. She had learned from Mondo some of what had happened, but the Police was still searching for the gun-person. 

Jessie had wondered why they would help them, members of Team Rocket, and got the answer that an Officer Jenny helps anybody and that Attempted Murder was something to be taken seriously, even if the victims were criminals themselves. 

Jessie was, however, to stand trial on some outstanding warrants as soon as she was released from the hospital. James, too, if he ever woke up. He was in a coma and his doctors expressed uncertainty that he would ever come out of it. At this point, there was still hope for his survival, but still much uncertainty. 

The doctors said that, sometimes, if someone a coma victim knows talks to them, that they pull out of it. That was what Jessie had been doing for the last three days, visiting and talking to James. 

Mondo said that Meowth was never found. He feared that the cat-pokemon had been killed. Jessie recounted what she could remember of that night to him, as it came back to her memory in snatches. 

Jessie told him of a vision that she had-something that she could not shake from her mind no matter how hard she tried. 

She knew that it was impossible-she had died when she was just a little girl, and she would never...try to kill her. The assassin's face...was that of her mother! 

Was she, somehow, still alive? If so, where had she been all these years? And why would she want to murder her own daughter? 

As vague as Jessie's childhood memories of her mother were, she recounted no abuse of any kind, only love. Mother used to do whatever she could to make life bearable for their poor family, including making Jessie food out of snow when they had nothing to eat-to make her at least THINK that she was eating something-to stave off the relentless pain of hunger. Things had gotten better when Mother had moved up in the ranks of Team Rocket. Giovanni was more generous with the salaries than that old Boss that Jessie remembered. 

The body of Myamoto Lillis was never found, so in Jessie's mind, she had always imagined that her mother could still be alive, somewhere. Perhaps she was still alive and with Team Rocket, but if so, why did she never know about it? Jessie was certain that she would have known. 

Perhaps her brain was just playing tricks on her-but the memory of the assassin's face echoed clear. Jessie was sure of what she had seen. 

Something that was not in question, according to the Cops and Mondo, was that it was a member of Team Rocket who had shot her and James. The three bullets that the surgeons had extricated from them all came from a model of gun that was known that only Team Rocket members carried. 

Jessie was determined, even though she could still barely even walk, to find a way out of this hospital-to find out the truth about who had shot them that terrible night-why it was a fellow Rocket-and if it was truly...her mother-no matter what. 

She looked down at her partner and stroked a bit of blue hair from in front of his tightly closed eyes. 

"I promise, James, I will find out who did this to us-and why..." 

END STORY TWO 

Shadowcat, 2000. 

Yep, I'm planning upon having every one of these stories end as a cliffhanger! (That is, until I get tired of writing them and decide to bring them to a conclusion)! Until then, you will just have to see "what happens next" with every new Myamoto Project story I write! Stay tuned! I'm so cruel, aren't I? 


	3. Paths

Shadowcat's Note: PG-13, as always. This just keeps getting weirder...you've been warned... 

"THE MYAMOTO PROJECT" 

Story Three: Paths 

"Mya, you must have no fear!" shouted Giovanni over the Gym floor. He stood with his pet Persian upon a balcony, watching a fierce battle below. The young woman, Myamoto, had thin streams of blood trailing down her face and determination in her eyes. She glared at the Growlihe that was her opponent, raising her small wooden club, her only weapon. 

The Growlithe had been trained to be vicious, to attack people. For Myamoto, this human-on-pokemon battle was both training and punishment. Giovanni set her to battle like a gladiator of Ancient Rome, human-against-fierce-beast. "True" Pokemon Battles were not like this, but Giovanni suspected that they would become so someday. He had a penchant for all things Roman. 

Her first assignment had gone well, but not well enough. She had proven that she truly did have no memories of her predecessor-that she was a perfect clone. She, however, had shown a weakness, Fear, causing her assignment to remain incomplete. 

Soon, they would be departing this place. Things had been based here for too long. Team Rocket had already begun setting up the cloning labs at a place codenamed "Isle Noir". 

The Growlithe leapt for Myamoto again. She sent it reeling, unconscious to the far end of the Gym with her club. She stood, sweating and gasping for breath, awaiting her Master's approval. 

"Well done, Myamoto. Well done" 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Jessie swam across a swift river, almost getting pulled under by the current. She emerged soaked and bedraggled on the other side. She had escaped the Vermilion City Hospital five days ago. Both Jenny of the Mount Moon Patrol and Jenny of Vermilion City with their packs of Growlihes were after her. 

It was not merely concern for her health because of the gunshot wound that she had sustained, but because she was now a fugitive from justice, fleeing the "house arrest" she had been effectively put under at the hospital. 

Jessie had learned of a secret Team Rocket base that The Boss had set up from hacking into the Team Rocket main computer system through a computer at the hospital late at night. It was somewhere in the Viridian Forest. 

There was a record Jessie had found. Most of it was encoded beyond her hacking abilities, but it was titled "The Myamoto Project" and listed a connection with the Viridian Base. 

"Myamoto". Her mother's name. Perhaps she hadn't been hallucinating about the face that she saw that terrible night when she and James got shot. She knew that there was something up-something to do with her mother-and she was going to sneak into that Viridian Base to find out what. 

Jessie parted through a tangle of young tree branches as she came to a place in the forest where she had seen smoke. She had left the Jennys and their Growlithes far behind, beyond the river. She thought she could hear them baying in the distance. She would not be caught, not until she found out what she had to know. 

She felt ironic, being on a search for the truth. 

What met Jessie's eyes in the woodland clearing was a great smoldering ruin. 

"Wha-" she said aloud as her orbs of sapphire were scanning the scene. It was clear that the wreckage had been and enormous compound of some sort. Jessie walked through the ashes, peering behind the standing ruins of walls, hoping to find some wisp of evidence of what went on there. 

Behind a toppled wall of brick, she did find something. 

"Meowth?" 

"Jessie?" 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Meowth, what are you doing here?" Jessie asked, eyes wide and mouth agape. 

Meowth ran to her with tears in the corners of his eyes and hugged her tightly around the legs; "Jessie, you and James, I tawght you guys were dead!" 

Jessie went on to explain waking up in the Vermilion City Hospital, James being in a coma, her escape, and the image of the assassin bearing the face of her mother. 

"Myamoto was your MOTHER?!" Meowth exclaimed. Jessie stared at him, shocked. 

"How do you know her name? Who she is?" 

Meowth explained what he knew. Jessie sat down beside him. The conversation lasted well over two hours. The cat explained the records that he had seen-the secrets that Giovanni had shared with him when he was his favored pet. 

He told what he knew of the old Joy/Jenny Project...and of The Boss' dream of The Myamoto Project. 

"The perfect soldier;" Jessie sighed painfully; "Mom was the Best, I constantly lived under her shadow. I joined Team Rocket, Meowth, because-because I wanted to bring honor to my family-to honor her. The Boss...said once...that I was a disgrace to her memory..." 

Meowth saw something in Jessie's face that he had very rarely ever seen before, true sorrow. She was an expert at hiding her emotions-except her anger, which she readily revealed, often in some painful way, to him and James. Things like pure, unsuperficial sorrow, however, were expressions that he seldom witnessed in his red-haired human friend. 

"She died...somewhere in the Andes when I was just a child;" Jessie continued; "The body was never found...how would they-the geneticists-have cloned her?" 

"Da Boss has files;" Meowth replied; "Every human Rocket member is in it, includin' him. His mother or grandfather or somebody set it up years ago-when Team Rocket got started. Everyone's blood samples are in dose files." 

"Which means-it is true-they cloned my...mother...from a blood sample? Why did my mother try to kill me...?" 

Light tears were streaming down Jessie's cheeks. 

"She...wouldn't be exactly your mother, Jessie;" Meowth spoke softly, trying to provide some measure of comfort, though small; "She...is like da Joys an' Jennys. Dey are all...a little different...an' different from da originals. Myamoto who shot ya...wasn't really your mother." 

"Whatever's going on, it must be stopped;" Jessie sighed, standing up; "Perhaps we can find some clues here." 

"It's a ruin;" said Meowth; "torched to destroy all evidence." 

"Still, maybe there's SOMETHING." Jessie began sifting through ashes with her hands, seeking some small thing that remained undamaged. She wasn't sure what she hoped to find, but would know when she saw it. 

"I wish I could see James;" Meowth muttered; "Is know that you said he was in pretty bad shape, but I still wish I could see 'im." 

"We could call the hospital;" Jessie suggested; "Get some news-like if he's woke up. There's no way of knowing otherwise. I'll have to disguise myself-we could use the phone at the Pokemon Center in Viridian City." 

Viridian City was not very far. Within and hour of leaving the burnt-out Team Rocket Base in the Viridian Forest, Jessie and Meowth were in the Viridian City Pokemon Center, dressed as and old woman and her pet Meowth on a leash, respectively. 

"Yes, is this Vermilion City Hospital?" Jessie asked into the videophone as she was greeted with the smiling visage of a young woman receptionist; "I wish to inquire about a patient under care there." 

The receptionist put Jessie on hold for a long five minutes after which she was greeted by a Doctor Jensen-Chief of Staff. 

"I am inquiring about James Rochester in Room 204;" Jessie asserted. 

"May I ask who is calling?" replied the young physician; "we are not authorized to release that information to anyone but close relatives." 

"I'm his aunt, Lois Rochester." 

Jessie waited while Dr. Jensen checked through his computer data records. She knew that the name would clear-James did have an Aunt Lois. He mentioned it to her once. It seemed funny to Jessie some of the weird little things she remembered James telling her around the campfire at night. There was no logical reason in her mind why she would bother to remember him mentioning his Aunt Lois, but she did. 

"Ms. Rochester?" the Doctor asked, snapping Jessie out of her reverie; "We regret to inform you...your nephew passed away at approximately 2:03pm today. I'm very sorry." 

All color drained from Jessie's face. She stared at the blank videophone screen after hanging up. Already weary from the grief she had poured out to Meowth today, this pronouncement was too much for her. She fainted. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Dr. Jensen returned to doing paperwork after getting off the phone with "Ms. Lois Rochester". He glanced over his shoulder with a nervous eye. The black-clad Team Rocket agent behind him had his gun holstered, but that was little comfort. 

*That James Rochester fellow must be SOME important guy.* Jensen thought. Team Rocket agents had swarmed in and taken over Vermilion City Hospital at precisely 2:00pm that afternoon. It was 6:00pm now and they still hadn't left. They had already taken what they had come for-the young shooting victim in Room 204, a Rocket agent himself. 

Jensen wondered if all Rockets were given such treatment by their Team when in need of hospitalization-kidnapped even when in Intensive Care. Perhaps, it had been a mistake for Mr. Rochester to have been brought here, perhaps Team Rocket had their own hospital of some sort for their members-to best guard their secrets. 

Dr. Jensen didn't know. All he knew was that, if anyone outside the hospital asked; the official word was that James Kojiro Rochester in Room 204 was dead. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

James awakened upon a steel table, bright white light burning into his eyes. He had been slipping in and out of consciousness for the past four days after being in a coma-state for almost two weeks, but was finally beginning to truly awaken. Images came back into his memory in sporadic flashes. 

He was in the woods, chasing somebody. Jessie had been shot. 

He was on some sort of gurney, being wheeled into the back of a black van-by people dressed in black. 

He was getting some sort of needle thrust into his arm. 

James tried sitting up, but found himself too weak. He lay back down with a low groan. He was naked except for a pair of boxer shorts. Tubes and needles were projecting from ever part of his flesh that he could see. 

*What is going on here?* 

For a moment, James wondered if he might have been abducted by aliens. This seemed a lot like some accounts of supposed "alien abduction survivors" he had read about. 

His eyes scanned the room he was in, as much as he could see of it, anyway. A steel cage in a corner held a Jolteon. James felt a not-unpleasant dizziness come over him. 

*Not again!* he thought as he lost consciousness once more. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

When James came to again, he was no longer upon a steel table, but inside a small prison cell. He was still clad in nothing but his boxer shorts and his body was racked with a tremendous ache. 

He felt the greatest pain in his chest-his lungs felt as if they were weighted down with iron. There were other spots of soreness in his arms and legs, looking at them, he saw numerous small wounds, a few of them slowly seeping small amounts of blood. 

As James crawled around on the floor of the cell he noticed something. As he stretched out his hand, sparks and small arcs of electricity emanated from it! 

He wearily stood, barely able to keep his balance. Delicate spirals of lightning swirled up his legs, traveled up his torso and sparked off his skin. It looked eerily reminiscent of an electric-pokemon's attack, but James felt no pain from it. 

"He's still alive and is no longer comatose;" James heard a voice say; "It appears that the splice was a success." James looked toward where he thought the voice came from. There were three men and one young woman standing a few feet from the bars of his cell. One of the men, James recognized. Giovanni, the Boss of Team Rocket. 

"His power shall have to be tested;" Giovanni said to the man who had made the previous statement. 

"Then;" whispered the young woman; "You will try it on me?" 

"Yes;" Giovanni replied; "More tests will necessarily be done, but with this breakthrough, Team Rocket will indeed have a race of perfect soldiers-ones with true power." 

He continued; "It actually turned out a good thing, Myamoto, that you failed to kill him-he provided the perfect subject for this-the first one to actually survive the procedure. I am pleasantly surprised." 

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!!" James demanded; "WHERE'S JESSIE AND MEOWTH?!!" Arcs of lightning flashed off his body, seeming to express his fury, illuminating the interior of his cell. 

"James, James, James. Calm down;" Giovanni sneered; "You should feel honored. You have become a milestone of modern genetic science. When you and your partner first told me about that incredible Pikachu that you found, remember how pleased I was? How much I wanted you to capture it for me? You never knew what I wanted to use it for, did you?" 

He paused, then continued; "Well, I no longer need the Pikachu. Cassidy and Butch brought me a high-level Jolteon several days ago. You have been, shall we say, 'spliced' with that Jolteon, James. Your body is now capable of producing powerful electric currents! If you continue to survive, Team Rocket will have a new power on our side-human members with the power and strength of pokemon! It will be a grand asset for the army of perfect soldiers soon to populate the ranks. If you prove useful and cooperative, perhaps there will be no need to terminate you at the end of the experiment and you will be allowed to join them." 

James looked at Giovanni balefully-in horror of what had been done to him-of what The Boss and his secret scientists were doing to him! 

"Perfect soldiers? With pokemon powers?" he whispered; "What have you done with Jessie and Meowth?" 

"You should be happy to know that, for the time being, we do not know where your former partners are. I have men searching for them. But they will be taken care of soon enough." 

"We should leave him now;" said one of the two men beside Giovanni, the one that had not as yet spoken; "Giving him more stress could jeopardize his body's taking of the splice. We need to check the tanks anyway-to view the progress of Mya's 'sisters'." 

Giovanni, the two scientists, and the young woman slowly left the room. As they closed the laboratory's heavy stainless-steel door behind them, James' emerald eyes watched them from behind the bars of the tiny cell in the corner. The young woman stared at him-the look in her eyes very strange to James. It was as if she understood the confusion that he was going through. 

END STORY THREE 

Shadowcat, 2000 

Hang in there! I know that this is getting strange and perhaps even a bit confusing, but I do have plans for at least one more story to this Series, so, believe it or not, all this weird stuff IS actually leading somewhere! 


	4. Family

Shadowcat's Note: A continuation of "The Myamoto Project". Read stories One, Two, and Three first. It's still weird...PG-13. 

THE MYAMOTO PROJECT 

Story Four: Family 

"Mommy! There was a giant Muk trying to get me! I think it's hiding under my bed!" 

"Jessie, Jessie dear, it was only a nightmare. See? There's nothing hiding under your bed. Everything's safe, go back to sleep now." The woman held the child close, then kissed her "Goodnight" on the forehead and tucked her back into bed. 

"Mommy, I'm so hungry! We don't have ANYTHING to eat?" 

"I'm sorry, honey, we couldn't afford to go to the store this week. It's snowing outside, I've got an idea..." 

"...Here we go, now we have a whole banquet! Just pretend that it's real and you won't be hungry anymore. I've even got a little bit of soy sauce for the 'sushi rolls'." 

"This is great, Mommy!" 

"We'll do this whenever we get hungry and there's nothing to eat, okay, dear? We can call it 'Snowgasboard'." 

"...Jessie, don't cry. I know you father and I can't afford to get you any dolls or do anything special for you like all your friends, but every girl is a princess on Princess Festival Day." 

"Mommy! Please don't go!" 

"I have to, dear. I know it's dangerous, but The Boss says that I have to. I want to take a picture of you to take with me, like your father gave me. That way, I'll have you both with me in spirit. As long as I have your picture, we will never be apart, then we'll be together again when I come back...come back...come back..." 

Myamoto awakened alone in her bedchamber at the Isle Noir Team Rocket Base. She stirred slowly beneath her blankets, then proceeded to get up to get dressed. Her dreams had been strange of late and disturbed her greatly. They seemed...real...as if she had actually lived them before. 

A recurring image in many of the dreams was a man, a man that she seemed to know in the dream, who was very close to her, a brother or husband perhaps. Another image, and image appearing more frequently in Myamoto's visions at night, was of a little girl with red hair. Myamoto was very emotionally close to this person in the dreams, too. The girl had a name, "Jessie". 

Then, there was another dream, a nightmare that she had almost every night. A strange and beautiful creature hovered over her-a pokemon. Then the dream ended with her being buried alive under a rushing torrent of snow. 

Myamoto had just been dreaming about the little girl again, she recalled, as she put on the black uniform with the great red "R" on the chest. The girl looked very much like a much-younger version of the woman she had been sent to assassinate several months ago, the failed assignment, Jessica Lillis, the partner of James Rochester. 

She was to go down to train with him in the Main Gym today, in half an hour. She turned off the set alarm on her clock before it had a chance to go off. Myamoto hadn't needed it much lately; the dreams were what awakened her in the mornings now. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Myamoto stepped out upon a walkway overlooking the floor of the Main Gym. James was already below, beginning the morning "exercises". Myamoto had to report to Giovanni before joining the blue-haired youth. Giovanni was sitting in his chair with his pet Persian beside him on a balcony on the other side of the Gym, he signaled for Myamoto to stay where she was and wait. She watched James. 

James stood staring at the far side of the Gym, where several black-clad minor Rocket agents were waiting for a signal from The Boss. James himself was in a black uniform, with white gloves, the reverse of the white one he used to wear as his standard issue. 

Giovanni raised his right hand, then brought it down in a dramatic sweep. The ten Rockets on the West Side of the Gym rushed James, tackling him in a swift and brutal assault! An aura of blue and white electricity surrounded the young man, and his eyes glowed an unnatural, phosphorous blue, the same color as the electric aura surrounding his body. A sound like a great thunderclap shook the Gym and the air smelled thickly of an odor like burnt wires. 

James stood unharmed; his ten assailants were rendered twitching, incapacitated on the Gym floor. Curls of smoke rose from burnt clothing and burnt skin. James was beginning to enjoy his new powers...they were like nothing he had ever had before. He was stronger in his electric attacks than a Pikachu, or even a Raichu. Still, he would have rather had his old life than this, the life of a science experiment. 

"Very good, James, most impressive. I'd say that your strength is increasing...all ten of them in this round;" Giovanni laughed, clapping his hands lightly. James stared up at him and growled. 

Suddenly, James ran to the Far West end of the Gym and started climbing the balcony wall! "Enough of this! Enough with you!" he shouted at his "Master" and captor, bristling with a well-charged electric aura. 

"Guards! Restrain him!" The Boss shouted, fear evident in his voice despite the commanding tone with which he issued the order. Three men leapt from the shadows of three different corners of the Gym, brandishing long spear-like devices tipped with electrically charged spearheads swirling with curls of blue lightning. 

It had been found in early testing that James could give electric attacks and was resistant to outside electrocution if it was given from a few feet away (as with the attack of an electric pokemon). He, however, would succumb as any normal man to the direct application of a taser to his person. 

As James reached for Giovanni's right leg, the three guards thrust the tips of their spears past James' aura of lightning, and lightly into his flesh. He screamed in agony and fell to the floor. The guards stood over him and applied their electric-spears to him again, delivering powerful voltage. 

"Tsk, Tsk, James. That was very naughty." Giovanni sneered. 

"P-Please! N-no more;" James whimpered; "I'll behave...Please...Stop!" 

"Take him to Cell 7-B;" The Boss ordered. The guards delivered one more powerful shock to James, causing him to lose consciousness, and then they dragged him away by his feet. 

Myamoto walked up to Giovanni, a concerned look lining her face. 

"It looks like you will be training alone today;" Giovanni muttered under his breath. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

That evening, Myamoto was allowed to visit her "training partner" in Cell 7-B. 

"You know that disobedience only causes pain. James, why did you do that this morning?" 

"I'm absolutely sick of what they're doing to us here. All the pain, the tests...the man took everything from me, Mya, Jessie and Meowth are probably dead by now...and...I'm not sure I'm even human anymore...they've made me a freak!" 

"But you don't think I'm a freak, do you? A clone?" 

"Your situation is different...Mya, aren't you tired of all the tests? All the 'training'? Giovanni doesn't care about you anymore than he cares about me...we're just toys to him, to be used...don't you ever want to try to leave this place and live your own life?" 

"I've wondered what it is like outside of these Rocket Bases and labs. I do admit it. And you're only making me wonder more, talking about the forests and cities and your friends...Jessie and Meowth...but if you keep disobeying, Giovanni will have you terminated." 

"I'm not sure if I even care anymore;" 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Quiet as a mouse;" Jessie whispered to Meowth as she crept into the dark interior of the Pewter City Pokemon Center through a small window that she and Meowth had pried open. 

Jessie and her feline friend had learned, through careful eavesdropping last night at Iwake's Grill, that the Pewter City Pokemon Center had some loose ties with Team Rocket, dealing with the exchange of information. 

It was said that the Center had been providing the very Boss himself with information upon the genetics of Pokemon, transferred to an undisclosed location. 

Perhaps, Jessie thought, this tied in with her "mother" somehow, for she had uncovered a few records in the last few months with scant traces of a "Myamoto Project" bearing some linkage to Pewter City. 

She and Meowth knew that their source was probably correct, even though they were merely eavesdropping on a dinner conversation. The men they were listening to they recognized as Team Rocket assassins. 

They had been sent to the Pewter area to look for Jessie. She and Meowth had escaped them after an encounter in the nearby woods just the day before. Jessie and Meowth had followed them to Iwake's Grill later, in disguise. 

They had been pursued by many such hired guns in recent weeks, having been lucky to escape them. All this, and they were still hiding from the Police. Jessie's rap sheet would be longer now than it was when she was a loyal member of Team Rocket. 

Many were the places she and the cat had broken into to steal information on their quest to find the truth about the "Myamoto Project". It was Team Rocket's plan to build an army of "perfect Team Rocket soldiers" cloned from the genetic material of its once best member, Jessie's deceased mother, Myamoto. 

Prison time would be the least of Meowth and Jessie's worries if they were ever captured by the Fuzz. Being confined to jail or prison would become a death sentence to them both, as assassins would easily find their location and eliminate them. I was an easy thing for a Rocket or two to break into a jailhouse and many were the Rockets in prison that would gladly eliminate a traitor. Crooked guards in the prisons would look the other way. The typical Officer Jenny was too naïve to see that, or perhaps just didn't care. 

Meowth pawed lightly behind Jessie as they entered a pitch-dark corridor. This was the back of the Pokecenter, sure to lead to labs or back rooms where records were kept and transferred. 

"You know what dis reminds me of?" Meowth began; "Dat one time when we broke into dat Breeding Center." 

"The one run by Butch and...grrr...Cassidy;" Jessie spat. 

"Dat first time James got attacked by dat Victreebell of his." 

Jessie laughed softly; "It would have been funny if we weren't trying to get away from Butch and Cassidy at the time." 

"He never could get dat ting trained." 

"I wonder if Jessiebelle's doing any better with it." 

Jessie let out a long sigh. She missed James deeply. It had been almost five months since his death. She and Meowth had gotten through their grief enough to move on with life, but this pursuit of truth felt incomplete to them both without him. 

From what Jessie heard, James' family had collected his pokemon and his remains from the Vermilion City Hospital. She and Meowth, being fugitives, did not attend whatever funeral they had given him. 

Jessie heard a sharp "click" in the darkness and immediately froze. Meowth did likewise. 

"Put your hands behind your heads and turn around slowly;" a voice gruffly ordered. All the lights of the Pokecenter came on at once. Officer Jenny of Pewter City stood at the end of the hallway with a small army of lesser officers, with her gun drawn on Jessie. 

"A set-up" Meowth whispered. 

Jenny spoke; "You have the right to remain silent..." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

James stood before Giovanni, flanked on his right and his left by guards. His head hung low, eyes not meeting those of his superior. 

"You will obey now. You will not try anything like the incident the other day ever again. Am I right?" 

"Y-yes sir." 

"I didn't hear you." 

"Yes sir!" James replied. 

"Very good. You may go back to your quarters now and we shall resume your training tomorrow. Guards!" 

The two guards escorted James to the apartment-like dwelling that was his home on Isle Noir-that is, when he wasn't in the Brig for disobedience. They carried electric-spears and wore thick rubber gloves and suits of rubber over their regular clothing, for protection. 

It had been discovered, rather painfully by one Rocket, that James could not only cause electric energy to blaze from his body as an aura around him, but that lightning arched off his person involuntarily if he were touched by any living organic entity. 

Several weeks ago, Agent Butch Kosaburo Anheiser had come up to James after one of his training sessions to "congratulate" him for a well done session and make snide comments about him being a freak. Butch made the mistake of clasping his hand on James' shoulder when James turned to walk away from his annoyance. Butch was in a coma in the Isle Noir infirmary for three days. 

Giovanni watched the guards leave with James. The boy was becoming quite a problem. The day before yesterday was not the first time that the young man had tried to attack him. That last time almost reminded him of a scene out of "Sparticus". 

The Boss of Team Rocket remained unworried, however. His last major genetic-engineering project, Mewtwo, had nearly killed him, but Myamoto and James were nothing to worry about. James, however rebellious he was becoming, had always been a rather meek individual and easy to control. 

The electric powers that he had gained from the Jolteon splicing had increased more than what was natural in the pokemon, but James was still not as powerful as Mewtwo had been, and never would be. When he disobeyed, Giovanni's loyal guards were always there to punish him. 

Giovanni wished to have more training and more tests before applying the genetic splicing to Myamoto and eliminating the young man. Truly, he did not want to eliminate him at all, for with his new strength, he would be a valuable asset to Team Rocket, more so than he had been. But if he did not regain that loyalty to the Team that he had possessed when he was a failure, James would have to be terminated. 

Myamoto, too, was not a danger. She was loyal, Giovanni knew that she considered him her "father" because he had laid the plans for his scientists to create her. Giovanni had considered becoming something besides a father to her, something that he had dreamed about with the original Myamoto. He was her partner, but longed to be closer, but she had married another man. 

Giovanni taught the clone of Myamoto about Team Rocket and how to become what she was to be, a "perfect member". He had longed to teach her more...other things, but had decided that it would be a disgrace to the true Myamoto's memory. "Myamoto-two" was a mere copy of the woman Giovanni had once loved, a shadow. He considered her a little less than human because she was a clone, to be used for the Team, for his gain. With an army of such fine members, Giovanni was sure he would come to control the world. 

That is, if any of the other Myamoto clones survived. The first clone, Myamoto or "Myamoto-two" as the scientists sometimes referred to her as, was the only one to have survived so far. All of her "sisters" had expired before being even half-formed in their gestation tanks. The Head Scientists of Team Rocket were unable as yet to decipher whatever complications were causing this to occur. 

Giovanni retired to his office and placed a glass of ice upon his mahogany desk. He sat down with a glass bottle. Tonight, he felt like getting reacquainted with his old friends, Jim Beam and Jack Daniels. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

That evening, at midnight, Myamoto crept into the West Garden of the Isle Noir Team Rocket Base. She often came here when she could not sleep. There was a light dusting of snow upon the ground. This time of year, the Garden was more of a courtyard than a garden, but some plants still grew, even in winter. 

She spied James sitting on one of the concrete benches, looking up at the stars. 

"Could not sleep either?" Myamoto asked. 

"I was just thinking about my partners. Jessie, more than the cat, really. I miss her." 

"She was special to you, wasn't she?" 

"More than she ever knew. So, why are you up? Having those dreams again?" 

"Yes. You know, James, they seem...so real. I'm beginning to suspect that they are not dreams, that they...actually happened to me somehow. I don't quite know how." 

"You are a clone. Perhaps you are having memories from your original or something." 

"I was suspecting that. How did you get so smart, James?" 

"I dunno. I never considered myself very intelligent. Jessie and Meowth always considered me a dope. I wonder where they are now, if they're alive, if they're thinking of me..." 

James and Myamoto often met each other and talked in this garden late at night. It was the only time they could do so without guards looking over their shoulders. They both sneaked out here when they were experiencing insomnia, which was often. James worried about his former friends and Myamoto was awakened by vivid dreams and nightmares. It was quite strange...they had become friends in the last few months. James had forgiven Myamoto for nearly killing him and his partner, Jessie. Perhaps, because they were in the same situation now, genetic freaks, slaves, the science experiments of Team Rocket. 

"I was dreaming of the red-haired little girl again. If what I dream about are memories, she must have been a little sister or a daughter. And there was something about snow." 

"Snow;" James sighed, staring at the light dusting on the ground and on the garden's few still living bushes; "Jessie loved snow. She told me that her mother used to make food out of snow when she was a child for her. Jessie grew up poor and would talk about not having enough to eat. She tried doing that for Meowth and I once, when we got trapped in some mountains chasing that brat and his Pikachu. 'Snowgasboard' I think she called it." 

Myamoto stared at James in utter shock; "Did you say 'Snowgasboard'? 

"Yes, I did." 

"Did Jessie ever tell you anything else about when she was a child?" 

"A few things, but I don't see why you would want to know..." 

"Just tell me!" 

"Well, she said that she always hated the Princess Festival when she was a girl because her family could never afford to get her Princess Dolls or do anything special for her. The only toy that she ever had was a Karate-Warrior puppet-doll that she said her mother gave her. She was raised mostly by her father because her mother died when she was young in the Andes or something, she never told me how..." 

Myamoto's eyes were wide; "Karate-puppet, Andes..;" she whispered; "Oh, my...How? James, what you are saying is exactly like my dreams! The little red-haired girl in my dreams...could it be that I knew your partner as a child? That my original knew your partner? That 'I' was her mother or something? And I almost killed her?" 

"I do not know. Try to remember more." 

"I'll try." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

At the Pewter City Municipal Jail, Jessie pleaded from behind the bars of her cell with Officer Jenny, who was sitting at her desk, watching a small television set, to let her and Meowth free. 

"Can it, honey. I'm sick of hearing it, I'm trying to watch TV here. You will get your chance in court tomorrow." 

"But, you've got to let us out! Team Rocket assassins are after us! Don't you understand?" 

"Yeah, right. You two are known Team Rocket members! Why would they send assassins after you? All you criminal-types, you lie through your teeth. Your fate will be decided in court tomorrow, so just accept the fact and shut-it!" 

"I've told you why assassins are after us;" Jessie retorted; "The cat and I know too much!" 

"Yeah!" Meowth added. 

"You mean all that garbage about the clones and such, like I'd believe that I'm a clone!" Jenny replied; "The Justicia family has always had a strong family resemblance, it's they way we are! I'm a big fan of science fiction, my dear, but your story, I just don't buy it." 

Just then, the Jailhouse door creaked open and another Jenny walked in, she looked older than the other Jenny, her indigo hair streaked with gray and white. 

"Aunt Jennifer?" Officer Jenny asked. 

"I've come for a visit, you weren't home, so I phoned the station and the boys said that you were here, guarding a couple of prisoners." 

The Jennys hugged, mumbling things like "Oh, I've missed you!" and "How have you been?" and other such nonsense. 

"Oh, the infamous Jessie Lillis of Team Rocket?" All the forces have been looking for her for months!" 

"We set up an ambush last night! On an anonymous tip that was called in about a robbery of the Pewter City Pokemon Center to take place." 

"Your force will be commended for this. You may even get a medal. What are you watching?" 

"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, I love this show! This is the episode where the crew finds a Jem H'dar child and tries to raise him...you know, those genetically engineered warriors of the Dominion..." 

"I hate Star Trek. Turn it off." 

"You really are missing a lot, it's a great show." 

Jessie spoke up; "Please! You have got to let us out of here! We'll be killed tonight or tomorrow if you leave us in here! Team Rocket will succeed in creating perfect soldiers, and you won't be able to stop them!" 

"What is she talking about?" Aunt Jennifer asked. 

"I think that woman needs some psych meds. She keeps ranting and raving about some sort of "Myamoto Project" whatever that is, about clones and stuff. And she says that the Happenstance family and our family are all clones engineered by Team Rocket years ago or something. It's more far-fetched than even DS9!" 

"It's all true!" Jessie cried; "I have evidence!" 

Aunt Jennifer's face went stark pale; "What do you know?" she asked Jessie. 

Jessie poured out a long story about her and her partner being shot by an assassin who looked like her mother and of finding records of cloning projects, the Joy/Jenny project in particular and what she had uncovered of the "Myamoto Project". Meowth added what he knew, from what he learned from Giovanni when he used to be Team Rocket's Top Cat. 

"You don't believe all this, do you?" Officer Jenny asked Aunt Jennifer, who was staring at Jessie, transfixed. 

"My niece, you were not ready for me to tell you this yet. You were going to learn in a few short years. What this woman and cat are saying is all true. I am of the First Generation. I am JennyNine." 

THE END, for now. 

Shadowcat, 2000 

I was planning on having more to this part of the story, but I noticed when writing how long this part was getting! Therefore, I plan to incorporate those ideas into the next story, Story Five, which I plan to be the conclusion to the Series. Stay tuned... 


	5. Truth

Shadowcat's Note: NOT the conclusion to the Series as I originally intended, there will be a Story Six! But several elements of the story are brought together here. Oh, and there is a little snatch of conversation early on that is of a religious nature, but it's short, so don't let that scare you off if you are *not* into Christianity. It's something that I chose to put in the story in dealing with the existential questions brought up by cloning. PG-13 as always. Enjoy! 

THE MYAMOTO PROJECT 

Story Five: Truth 

"So it is true;" Myamoto whispered in awe, staring at an enormous computer screen, her eyes switching from it to a file of papers that she held in her hands. James stood beside her, longing to put a hand upon her shoulder for comfort, but daring not too, knowing the electrocution that it would bring. 

Myamoto and James had broken into the Records Warehouse as the Isle Noir Team Rocket Base. It felt to James as if he and Myamoto were playing Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in an episode of "The X-Files", peering around in a darkened building of secrets with tiny flashlights. The 'Files had been one of Jessie's favorite shows, he recalled, though it had often scared him. 

They found the records that they had been seeking, which merely confirmed what Myamoto had already known. The dreams that she had been having of late had been becoming more vivid and, through them, "memories" began to surface. 

Now, Myamoto stood staring at solid, written confirmation. Her original, the woman that she had been cloned from, and therefore she, in a way...was Myamoto Lillis, the mother of Jessica Mushashi Lillis. 

"James;" she whispered; "I feel...like I AM her, that she was me. I-I have to meet my daughter, your partner. And...I have to leave here...I wish no longer to be Father Giovanni's slave." 

"I promise;" James said; "That we will escape this place. If Jessie's alive, we will find her. I...have a plan...We will escape Isle Noir, or die trying..." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Please! You've got to believe me!" said a young man in a very tattered black shirt and white pants. 

Ash, Misty, Brock, and Tracey looked at him with much suspicion. Pikachu started charging his cheek pouches. Both Tracey and Brock were traveling with Ash on his Journey for the time being. Brock had resumed traveling with the would-be Pokemon Master after working for a while with Professor Ivy and Tracey had taken a short leave of his work with Professor Oak. Misty, as always, was still hounding Ash to repay her for her bike he had destroyed so very long ago. 

The brown-haired youth standing before them told the group that he was a Team Rocket member looking for Jessie of Team Rocket. Ash and his friends had not seen Jessie, James, and Meowth (who used to constantly plague them) in several months. 

The young man, who called himself Mondo, acted gruff and criminal when he first encountered the group, demanding the four travelers to tell him where Jessie was, assuming that they knew, because Jessie and James used to follow them. That was the reason for the great mistrust now. 

Acting tough had not gotten Mondo the information that he sought, so now he was pleading. He poured out a cockamamie (in the opinion of Ash and his friends) tale about escaping Team Rocket kidnappers, who had taken their old enemy James to some island to perform weird experiments upon him and he, himself being on the run from assassins. 

"A likely story;" muttered Brock. 

"Why should we believe you?" said Ash. 

"You admitted to being with Team Rocket;" yelled Misty; "If you wanted us to trust you, you shouldn't have threatened us!" 

A loud "Whizz!" came out of nowhere! A shiny bit of metal embedded itself in the trunk of a tree. Another bullet soared over everybody's heads. 

"Duck!" Tracey shouted. 

"Run!" Mondo cried. 

Ash, Misty, Brock, Pikachu, Tracey and Mondo ran through the forest. Their attackers made themselves evident, bursting through bushes. 

"Ha! There's the little traitor!" one of the two black-clad men exclaimed. 

"What about those kids?" replied the other. 

"Witness elimination!" 

"Hold it right there!" a voice out of the woods shouted, followed by a second, older sounding voice. 

"Freeze, scumbags!" 

Two Officer Jennys, one whose indigo hair was streaked with gray, stood with guns drawn upon the black-uniformed men. Two figures stood behind them, one very short and the other very tall with long red hair. 

"Jessie! Meowth!" Mondo gasped as he turned around to look at the Officers. 

The assassins opened fire upon Jenny and Jennifer Justicia! The policewomen returned fire and Jessie produced a gun. Misty shrieked. Brock, Tracey, and Mondo ducked. Pikachu, the fear in his rapidly beating little rodent heart overcoming his logic, ran right into the center of the gun battle! 

"Pikachu!" Ash screamed, rushing to grab and shield his beloved pokemon as the bullets flew. "Pika!" 

"Arrrrgggghhh!" 

"Ash!" Misty cried. 

"Arrrrgggghhh!" groaned one of the assassins as he fell to the ground. The other swore, dropping his gun as his hand became a bloody mass! 

The two Officer Jennys ran to the two black-clad men. Young Jenny assessed the condition of the one on the ground, pronouncing to him that he was under arrest as soon as she found that he was alive and the wound that she had given him not serious. Jennifer confiscated the gun of the other man and handcuffed him (by his good hand) to a tree. Then she turned to the civilians. 

Misty knelt beside two forms that lay on the ground, Ash and Pikachu. 

"Ash! Oh, no....no...." 

"Groooooannnnn....Misty? PIKACHU!" 

"Chu...." 

Older Officer Jenny knelt beside Ash; "I just called for an ambulance from Alizarin City, and they are on their way. Hold on, son, just hold on." 

"Jessie!" Mondo cried, nearly crushing his old friend in a tight embrace. 

"Mondo?" 

"Oh, Jessie! I've been looking for you and Meowth for months! I escaped the kidnappers at the Vermilion Hospital, and-and..." 

"Kidnappers?" 

"Let me explain..." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"James is alive?" Jessie asked Mondo while sitting in the Alizarin City Hospital Waiting Room. Brock and Tracey were there, as well as the two Officer Jennys (who were busy filing reports with one of the hospital secretaries), while Misty had gone in to see Ash and Pikachu. The hospital staff were only letting one person in to see them at the moment, and his surgeon would announce when he felt that he was ready to have more visitors. 

As for the care of Pikachu, Alizarin City Hospital always kept a Nurse Joy on hand for any pokemon emergency that should arise nearby, for the nearest Pokemon Center was far from this particular human hospital and sometimes, local people brought their pokemon there in a crisis. 

"I'm actually not too sure of that now;" Mondo replied. I know that they took him to Isle Noir, it's an island in the Orange Archipelago, yet so far from the other islands that it is not considered a part of it. I know the coordinates. It is thought to be deserted, but Giovanni's set up a secret Base there." 

Meowth stirred where he lay on Mondo's lap. 

"So's ya mean dat James got kidnapped an' taken to dis Isle Noir place? Dat he ain't dead like me an' Jessie tawght?" 

"Whether he's alive or dead, I do not know now. He very well could be dead. I have no idea what they were planning to do with him, all I know is that it was some sort of genetic research involving humans and pokemon and that they had some other project going on there, something to do with cloning." 

"Cloning?" replied Jessie; "Mondo, have you heard anything about a 'Myamoto Project'? 

"Yes, I think that's what it was called." 

"Jessie an' I've found records;" said Meowth. 

Jessie and Meowth then began their long story of what they had learned in the last several months. They told of what they knew about the Joys and Jennys and about what they had uncovered about the "Myamoto Project". Jessie also told Mondo with much pain that the original Myamoto was her mother. The Jennys came from the secretary's desk and sat down to join the conversation. 

The older Jenny, Jennifer Justicia, bore many surprising secrets about her family. Brock and Tracey listened transfixed and amazed. 

"So you mean;" whispered Tracey; "You're all clones?" 

"Yes." 

"But you are all individuals at the same time, right?" asked Brock; "not to sound rude, but how do you sort out your identity if you are...clones?" 

"And why do you let the cloning continue?" asked Mondo; "I know this sounds weird coming from a...'Rocket', but isn't that...a little unethical?" 

"It is the only way to keep our family line alive, I'm afraid;" Jennifer answered; "You see, none of us are...able to have children. The cloning process renders us sterile. The only way we can keep the Justicia family alive and preserve the memory of our mother, JennyOne, the original Jennifer Justicia, is by the cloning. Besides that, our race are the perfect civil servants. We all love police work and do it well, as do the Joys in their occupation. The cities as we know them today are partially built upon our skilled and dedicated service and would be in dire straits if we did not continue our families. You understand?" 

After receiving nods from Tracey, Brock, Mondo, Jessie, Meowth, and Young Jenny, Jennifer continued; "Though I know that I am a clone, 'JennyNine', I don't feel like I am less than human. When I first learned of my status as a child with the Old Team Rocket, it created a great amount of confusion within me. I grew quickly and never really had a childhood, but my adult life has been long and I still grew and learned." 

She continued; "As far as I'm concerned, even though I was created by humankind, I am still a creation of God, just, perhaps, a little indirectly. I've found my identity in my faith in God. I've come to believe in Jesus and, in Him, I have found ultimate worth." 

"You'll have to excuse my Aunt;" said the Young Officer Jenny; "She does this to almost everyone..." 

"Oh, don't excuse me, dear;" interrupted Jennifer; "I am never ashamed of the Truth." 

Jessie couldn't believe all that was going on. Just this morning, she was involved in a raging gun battle, got re-aquatinted with an old friend, learned that her dead partner might still be alive, and now was getting preached to by a Christian clone. 

"Whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. If nothing else, a clone like me qualifies as a whosoever..." 

A doctor came in, Doctor Lockter, Ash's surgeon. 

"You may go see your friends now. Mr. Ketchum is resting comfortably and both he and the Pikachu will be just fine." 

Ash had sustained a minor gunshot wound to his upper left arm. He was to be held for observation for two or three days, but Doctor Lockter said that there was no cause for worry. Pikachu was slightly worse off, one of the assassin's bullets had nearly destroyed his tail. 

Young Jenny, after briefly visiting Ash, had gone to check with some other doctors on the condition of the Team Rocket assassins, also brought into the Alizarin Hospital. She was to make arrangements for them to be held there under heavy guard until they were well enough to be released into Police custody. 

"So;" Brock said after a long exchange of information between all parties; "the two Jennys have agreed to help Jessie and Mondo stop Team Rocket's plans. Tracey and I have decided to join them." 

"Join them?!" Misty cried; "Are you serious?!" 

"Yes;" Tracey answered; "We think that you should stay here with Ash. With my skills as a Watcher and Brock's skills with pokemon, we will be able to help Mondo and Jessie to infiltrate Isle Noir and gather the evidence that the Police need." 

Ash looked up at his friends from his bed as he stroked Pikachu, who was laying with bandaged tail upon his chest; "Promise you'll be careful." 

"Chu." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Somewhere in the forest of Isle Noir, several miles from the Team Rocket Base, two figures wandered. They had to get to the coast by dawn, before the search Growlithes found them. If they were found, Myamoto would be spared but it would be the end of James. 

The escape from the Base yesterday had worked and they had been hiding and on the run all of yesterday afternoon and today and it was well into the night. James had disabled a few unwary guards with his electricity, making possible his and Myamoto's escape. 

Now the plan was to make it to one of the smaller docks on the East coast of Noir and to hijack one of the speedboats harbored there. They were both fatigued but Myamoto looked especially unwell. 

"James, I-I have to rest. I don't know why I feel...so tired, but I have to-" 

"No, Mya. They'll surely catch up to us if we stop now. We have to go on." 

James parted some bushes only to see a motley group of people walking through the woods in his direction. He froze, stunned. 

"Jessie? Meowth? Mondo?" 

Myamoto stared as well. Jennifer, Jenny, Brock, and Tracey stared at Myamoto and James, an old enemy with a purple-haired stranger. 

"James!" Jessie cried, running to embrace her partner and friend, ecstatic that he was alive. 

"Jessie! No!" James yelled, but it was too late. There was a loud "BZZZZT!" akin to the sound of an insect-zapper going off and Jessie lay on the ground, breathless. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The world was a blur of blue and white as Jessie's eyes fluttered open. There was a loud ringing in her ears that was slowly subsiding as she grew steadily more awake. Her body was racked with a screaming ache, the muscles of her arms, legs, and chest felt as though they had been pulled and stretched like taffy. 

"She's coming to;" stated a voice above her, a familiar and comforting voice. 

As her vision became clearer, Jessie found herself staring into the forest green eyes of James. 

"So, I wasn't dreaming;" she whispered; "You are alive." She reached out her right hand to touch his face but he quickly drew away. 

"Wha-?" 

"You can't touch me, Jessie, no on can. It's a long story, but I will explain." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Jessie learned that she and her party were no longer on Isle Noir. After she had been electrocuted, Mondo had saved her life with the quick application of CPR and he, along with the Officer Jennys, Tracey, Brock, and James, had brought her back to the Mainland via Jennifer Justicia's helicopter. They were in a small hospital in a coastal town called Anaranjado. 

James wove a long tale about how he had been genetically spliced with a Jolteon and how it had given him the ability to duplicate the pokemon's electric attacks. He also told of how no living thing could touch him without him involuntarily shocking it. 

James agreed to testify against Team Rocket in court, in exchange that no charges be pressed against Jessie, himself, Mondo, and Meowth. 

And Jessie met "Myamototwo". 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

It was strange at first, to Jessie, seeing her "mother" again. Not only was it like receiving someone back from the dead, but her "mother" was almost as young as she was. 

When Myamoto was cloned, her body had been aged to approximately equal the age at which her original had died, a woman in her early twenties. 

"Oh, Musa, don't cry, don't cry..." Myamoto comforted while hugging Jessie, who was overcome with emotion at reliving memories. Myamoto called her "Musa", a shortening of Jessie's middle name, Mushashi. It was a name that Jessie's mother used to call her when she was very young. 

Myamoto had regained nearly all of the memories of her original now, they came to her in full-force upon meeting her "daughter". 

It had been only four days since they had been introduced to each other, but Jessie and Myamoto had bonded as if they had known each other forever. It was as if they actually were a mother and daughter who had been separated for several years, making up in their reunion for all the time between. 

Myamoto was set to testify before the Police with James, but was staying in Anaranjado with Jessie while the hospital physicians and the two Officer Jennys from Pewter City ran a few minor tests on her. 

Myamoto, ever since she had left Isle Noir, had grown ill. She had an overall weakness that was growing by the day and the doctors did not quite know why.' 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Weird that they're all clones;" Brock muttered; "I've always thought that the Viridian City Officer Jenny was the most beautiful, very...elegant." 

"I've always liked the Nurse Joys a little better, myself;" Tracey sighed, turning pages in his sketchbook. He and Brock were sitting in one of the hallways of Anaranjado Hospital waiting to meet Young Officer Jenny of Pewter City there. 

They had both been put up in a local hotel, for they were key witnesses in the newest investigation against Team Rocket along with James, Mondo, and Myamoto. 

"Ash, Misty, and I met this one island-hopping. She'd kayak to outlying islands to treat the pokemon there, sometimes miles at a stretch. That's why she's so buff." 

Tracey presented Brock a drawing of a slightly muscular Nurse Joy standing next to a Gyrados. 

"Hey, that's good!" said Brock; "Still pretty strange that the women we love are all clones." 

Tracey nodded. 

"Someone! Help! Quickly!" someone shouted from down the hall, it was Jessie! 

"My mom-er-Myamoto...something's wrong! We were talking and she just...fainted! Get the doctors in here!" 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"She's missing a specific mixture of vital chemicals in her body;" said Doctor Raymond, one of Anranjado's Chiefs of Medicine, to Jessie, James, Meowth, Mondo, Brock, Tracey, the two Pewter City Jennys, and Myamoto, who was standing in the room behind everybody else clad in a hospital gown. 

"We were able to synthesize it, but not completely. Myamoto, what we injected you with will sustain you for a short period, but there is a missing component-something that seems specific to your system. We believe that your creators may have engineered you with a deficiency, something whereby Team Rocket could control you, a chemical that they were somehow giving you that you cannot survive without." 

"Ketrecel White;" Young Jenny spoke up. 

"What?" Older Jenny asked. 

"The science fiction that I like to watch. On Star Trek: DS9 there are these genetically engineered soldiers, the Jem H'dar. They fight for the evil 'Dominion' and they are addicted to a chemical substance that they need in order to survive. That way, the Dominion keeps them loyal." 

"Bingo;" said Doctor Raymond; "Team Rocket probably engineered it as part of your system that you need to survive, to keep you loyal to them." 

"I was..;" Myamoto began; "given something to drink by the guard outside my bedchamber every night. I was never told what it was, only that I 'needed' it." 

"That means one thing;" said James, trembling; "To save your life, we must go back to Isle Noir." 

END STORY FIVE. 

Shadowcat, 2000. 

Hang in there, readers! There is a Story Six! The final conclusion to the Series! 


	6. Loyalty

Shadowcat's Note: Finally, the conclusion to the Series. I was originally going to incorporate this into Story Five, but decided instead that it was better to make it a separate story, otherwise, it would make Story Five seem a little too rushed (which it probably was anyway) and too long. Making this a Story Six made more sense to me. Enjoy! PG-13, heck, maybe even R. This one has quite a bit of violence. 

THE MYAMOTO PROJECT 

Story Six: Loyalty 

"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, Myamoto;" Giovanni cackled amidst the flames, holding Jessie tightly by the neck with one hand while the other was gripping a gun that was firmly pressed against Jessie's right temple; "I expected better of you." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The events of the last several hours had been a blur. Jessie, James, Meowth, Tracey, and Jennifer Justicia had broken into the Main Cloning Laboratory at the Isle Noir Team Rocket Base. 

Myamoto had insisted upon coming along even though her health was frail. This was the best chance to find that vital substance that the cloned Myamoto needed to live. If they could find the substance, legitimate scientists could synthesize it for her. 

Physicians had given her a substitute based upon the analysis of her blood, but the substitute was missing a vital ingredient and she was slowly dying. Even now, her strength was failing her. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"You were to be great, Mya, a great warrior, a perfect soldier along with your comrades;" Giovanni hissed, pressing his gun more firmly against Jessie's head, a look of immeasurable fear shimmered in her eyes. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The group of six had infiltrated the great Main Cloning Lab. Tracey busied himself making detailed sketches of its layout, for after finding Myamoto's needed substance, Jennifer Justicia planned to marshal the Officers of several cities for a specialized raid upon the Team Rocket Base. 

Brock and Mondo were back on the mainland working with the Young Officer Jenny of Pewter City, Justicia's "niece", already forming a plan. 

Jennifer and Tracey were following James and Myamoto's lead in infiltrating and searching the place (that was familiar to the two "Rockets") in order to gather evidence for and knowledge of the Base's setup for the raid. 

"Whoa, they're all...empty;" whispered Myamoto, staring up at a wall of ten great glass tanks. Jessie gave her a quizzical look. 

"They...used to have...my 'sisters';" Myamoto explained. 

"Lookit this file I found!" James called. He was standing over a lab table holding some papers. Jessie, Myamoto and Meowth rushed to his side, while Jennifer was still gathering clues and Tracey was still sketching. 

"It says;" James read; "'Abandoning Project. Clones-total failures, none survive. Something right with 'Myamototwo'. Must have her to have the key." 

Suddenly, a violent explosion ripped through the East end of the lab! Jessie, James, Myamoto, and Meowth ducked while Jennifer Justicia and Tracey disappeared among the flames and flying debris! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"You would give up the opportunity of a lifetime, the opportunity to rule the world with me, for this? For HER? For a 'daughter' and memories that aren't even really yours? Once she is taken care of, you will come back to me." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Jenny!" Jessie screamed; "Tracey!" 

"Oh, my God!" James cried. He, Jessie, Myamoto and Meowth searched among shattered glass and licking flames for their companions. 

"Dere over here!" Meowth called. Myamoto and Jessie knelt beside their two prone friends on the ground, Jessie next to Jenny, Myamoto next to the young artist. 

"She's dead;" Jessie whispered after taking Jennifer's pulse, tears filling her eyes. 

"So's he;" Myamoto replied. 

"No, no...please no..." James whispered. 

"Dey were a copper and a twerp, but dey didn't deserve dis;" Meowth said forlornly. 

A dark laugh filled the lab; "You didn't think I'd let myself be caught by the authorities did you? You didn't think I'd leave all this lovely evidence behind?" 

Another explosion rocked the lab. 

"Jessie!" James, Myamoto, and Meowth cried, seeing her suddenly absent from their presence. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Myamoto glared at Giovanni, the large shard of glass she held in her right hand lightly cutting into her palm. James and Meowth stood next her, shaking with fear at what they knew he was about to do to their Jessie. 

"Murderer!" Myamoto shouted; "You were always out for your own ends! Now that it has all failed, you still choose to cause misery? You are NOT my 'father'!" 

"Mya, my dear, my dear. I only want what's best for the world! If you come with me to the new labs, we can accomplish that which I set out to do. Mya, you are the Key to a new race! A new Team Rocket!" 

"Never! I have realized the wrong of what you are doing! I have found something I never found here, Love. I wished to be your soldier, but I have grown, changed! I may be a clone, but I have a conscience! You murder innocents!" 

"So, I was merely protecting us, destroying evidence, like I did in Viridian. A couple of...unfortunate casualties happened to get in the way. One more and you will have no choice but to return to me. And may I remind you, the 'C-22312' that you need, the lifefluid, is something only I can provide. You forfeit your life by not returning to me! Once I take care of your pathetic little 'family interest' here, you will see the error of your ways." 

Giovanni cocked his weapon with a loud "click!" Jessie winced. 

"It will be less painful for your 'daughter' than what the cat and the boy will go through once I detonate the last of the charges here from my helicopter. One bullet, quick and painless, take comfort in that." 

Myamoto growled, then she ran to and leapt upon Giovanni! Jessie flew away from his cruel grasp as the gun fired one round into the smoke-filled air! Giovanni cried out in a scream that was cut short by one thrust of Myamoto's glass shard into his chest. 

Myamoto staggered away from his fallen form, her upper body covered in blood. Her breaths were short. It became immediately obvious that in her bold act, Myamoto had used the last of her failing strength. She collapsed upon the cold tile floor. 

"Mother!" Jessie cried, running to her side. She gathered Myamoto's head into her lap; "Mother, Mother!" 

"Jessie;" Myamoto whispered. 

"You sacrificed yourself for me? Why?" 

"'Tis what any good mother would do." 

"But you're not...not truly..." 

"Oh, but I am, I am. I maybe just her clone...but I had the memories, I knew you. As far as I'm concerned, you ARE my daughter. I-I want you to...go...live your life, put the past behind you...and live...for you and for me." 

"Just hang on;" Jessie pleaded; "I'm sure the doctors can find a way to save you, to re-create that substance, if you only hang on...hang on, don't leave me, not again." 

Myamoto started to sit up. She reached out her hand; "Mew?" she whispered; "Is that really you, Mew?" Then she closed her eyes and fell silent. 

Jessie quietly sobbed. Meowth pawed lightly to her and rested a paw upon her shoulder in sympathy. James watched from a distance. 

He longed to comfort Jessie in such a way, but knew that he could not, at least, not without nearly killing her. In the last several months between being separated from her and reunited with her again, he had begun to realize that he really loved her as more than a friend or even a sister-figure as he had often thought of her in the past. 

Now, in a time of greatest need, he could not hug her as he had often done when they were afraid, or even lightly rest his hand upon her shoulder anymore. The secret to reversing his electric 'splicing' had surely, along with the secret to Myamoto's cure, died with Giovanni. Things would never be as they were again, nor as they should be. 

Jessie rose, laying Myamototwo's head gently down upon the tile floor, brushing the hair out of her face. Meowth followed behind her. 

"James, let's go." 

"But-" 

"I just want to leave this place, let's go." 

The three figures, the red-haired and broken woman, the blue-haired young man, and the little cat-pokemon, walked away side by side, with all they had left, each other, in absolute silence. 

THE END 

Shadowcat, March-April 2000. 


	7. Healing

Some thanks to Robert A. Stott/ArkNorth, for his thoughts upon clones and souls in "The Lugia Chronicles"; which gave me some of the ideas for this epilogue. Thanks to Sforzie (picky...) for Beta Reading, she was a good editor.   
  
  
  
HEALING  
  
Epilogue to The Myamoto Project  
  
By Shadowcat  
  
  
It had been two years since the nightmare...yet the dream had just begun; the pain of dreams best left forgotten...  
  
James re-read the front-cover of the Poke-National News in disbelief. The Jennys had "blown their cover", the eldest members of their great family announcing themselves to the media, which devoured the story with voracity.  
  
It was all over the television and radio broadcast news and glaring in the headlines of all the newspapers. Team Rocket, the remains of if after the ordeal on Isle Noir, had covered the activities of Giovanni well, as he had covered the activities of Team Rocket's generations that preceded him. Now, it would soon all come out-the secret origins of the Justicia family of police, the origin of the Happenstance family of medical professionals, and even-the Myamoto Project.  
  
James had wondered how his old friend "Myamototwo" had such vivid memories of her predecessor-and he soon learned some of why. All kinds of major genetic researchers, various scientific minds, and even scholars and philosophers came to most strange conclusions in their debates over the Jenny phenomenon.  
  
"Mental Connectivity" one man termed it, a phenomenon discovered among a few of the older Jennys, something that had only begun to happen recently among members of the "First" and "Second" generations. It was a "regaining" of the "memories" of the life of their original mother, decorated policewoman Jennifer Justicia. Ms. Justicia had had donated her tissue to an "undisclosed scientific group" for the study of genetic engineering...50 years ago.  
  
A "Second Generation" Jenny, who called herself Jenni Justicia Steele, disclosed several dates concerning the experiments and their results (refusing to disclose the "scientific group" behind it). She also revealed that she and other members the Second Generation and the First were experiencing impressions of "memories" that, according to logic, they shouldn't be having. They were "memories" of themselves as their original mother after the dates of her tissue donations, a few women even had "memories" related to Jennifer Justicia's death.  
  
"We have yet to come to a conclusion to explain this occurrence," stated one particularly expert geneticist on national television, "it may be evidence toward the hypothesis that living cells separated from the body retain some kind of energetic connection to the whole from which they were taken. Perhaps even though these women are separate from their original and from one another, they are connected."  
  
The philosophers, of course, opted for more spiritual explanations. "This is evidence," one said, "that the body and the soul are inextricably connected." Some pondered that the Justicia clan was not made up of truly individual minds, but one collective soul. The Jennys themselves contested this vehemently, proclaiming their own individuality. One minister asked, "Does a clone have a soul?"  
  
All James knew as he sat on the edge of the couch, reading the paper, was that this was going to tear Jessie to shreds. The secret of the Myamoto Project would surely be revealed in time. Of course, he expected to be questioned about it, along with Meowth. He hoped that Jessie would be left alone. James assumed that she would be, having a room now in Clemont Memorial Mental-Health Asylum.  
  
The dark events of two years past had left James in a much-worrisome physical condition, but he was being helped. The "Jolteon splicing" that Giovanni had subjected him to was slowly being reversed with special medical therapy. Mondo and the young Jenny they had worked with had set him up with physicians who asked few questions...the physicians at the hospital in Anaranjado.   
  
James was able to control the electrical impulses that his flesh generated now-much like an electric pokemon. He could use his powers like a pokemon before, but he never had complete control over them. Now, with the special therapies Anranjado's doctors had discovered by chance in working with him, his electricity was no longer generated involuntarily whenever his skin came in contact with a living organism. James could touch again.   
  
Sadly, he could no longer give a comforting hug to Jessie.  
  
James recalled the night that changed his spirited friend into the haunted creature that that she was now. The entire strange ordeal had changed her, but especially that night.   
  
He, Jessie, Meowth, Jennifer Justicia ("JennyNine") and a friend, Tracey Sketchit, had broken into the hidden Team Rocket base on Isle Noir with "Myamototwo", the only successful product of the Myamoto Project. She was a clone of Jessie's mother, who had disappeared on a mission many years ago, the best agent in the history of Team Rocket.  
  
The six souls found their way to the laboratory, to search it for samples of a substance needed to save Mya's life. She was created to be a perfect Team Rocket soldier, but had decided to betray her destiny.   
  
Giovanni had rigged the base with explosives-a trap. Ms. Justicia and Mr. Sketchit were instantly killed in a violent explosion when he detonated one of the charges. Giovanni took Jessie hostage to shoot her in front of James, Meowth, and Myamoto, to rid Myamoto of the person she was betraying her "destiny" for. Myamoto, using the last of her rapidly failing strength, rushed the man and stabbed him with a large shard of glass, sacrificing her life to save Jessie's. She died in Jessie's arms.  
  
Jessie's soul was broken after that. She, James, and Meowth did not know where to go or what to do after walking away from the flaming ruins of the base. Police choppers arrived roughly two hours later, responding to the concerns of citizens on the Anaranjado mainland who reported seeing fires on a distant island out in the sea.   
  
By the time that officers found the former Rockets out in the island's woods, Jessie had cried herself into exhaustion and lay sleeping, curled into a tight ball against the base of a large tree. Meowth huddled next to her to keep her warm while James sat on a patch of moss a few feet away.  
  
To James' surprise, Brock and Mondo were with the police who found them, along with "Jennynine's" "niece-a Jenny who had just learned the dark truth about her family.   
  
Brock asked James what had happened in stunned one-word questions. James was too shocked and sorrowfilled to answer with speech.   
  
"Myamoto?" Brock asked, the inflection in his voice indicating "is she dead?"  
  
James nodded, tilting his face toward the smoldering building rising up from the forest in the northeast.  
  
"Officer Justica?"   
  
James nodded again. Young Jenny sobbed into her hands.  
  
Tears began a rivulet down Brock's right cheek. His voice cracked as he asked his final query.  
  
"Tracey?"  
  
James nodded once more.  
  
Even with the police involvement and the news coverage of the destruction on Isle Noir, not much of the cloning lab was left and no solid evidence of the main function of the Base. Myamoto was disclosed by Jessie, James, Meowth, Mondo, Brock, and Jenny as merely a subversive Team Rocket member who was, with them, trying to help the police close down a Team Rocket pokemon smuggling operation.  
  
None of the six ever knew why, exactly, they had not revealed the entire truth-perhaps, it was because they felt at the time that it was information that the world (particularly the Happenstance family of the Nurse Joys and the young Jennys) could not bear. Perhaps, it was because they feared another group would rise up like Team Rocket to re-create the projects. Had events gone differently, James and Myamoto would have testified against Team Rocket, bearing the whole truth. Now, all involved kept their silence.   
  
Mondo had an apartment in Pewter City and he invited Jessie, James, and Meowth to stay with him. The young man had been much better about saving his Team Rocket paychecks than James and his partners had been.  
  
A month after moving in, and trying to put tragedy behind them, Jessie's grief, instead of healing, gnawed at her soul. She had a severe nervous breakdown. She was now in Clemont Asylum, undergoing counseling from doctors who didn't believe half of what she told them for nearly two long years.  
  
She was allowed visitors few and far between. James put down the newspaper, got up off the couch and+ grabbed his parka. He set out into the pouring rain beyond the apartment door. Meowth and Mondo were already on their way. It was an hour's drive to Clemont, even longer in the heavy rain and James needed to make a stop, but he would be there this day, to see his Jessie.  
  
He pulled his Toyota through the open iron gates of a cemetery...  
  
There they were, and of course they would be, the exact anniversary. James parked beneath a large oak tree and stepped out to meet them, rain spattering on his face. Misty grabbed him in a fierce hug. "You came," she whispered, "you came."  
  
Brock and Ash stood between two headstones. Ash was holding a shivering Pikachu in his arms while Brock held an umbrella over both of their heads. Pikachu's tail hung limply, and frayed. James heard the story of how the rodent had been shot. He wondered why the Pokemon Center hadn't just amputated it; the once proud flag now a scarred disgrace.  
  
Standing a few feet off at another stone marker was a Jenny, and James knew which one. James thought to walk up to her to ask how she was taking the headlines and the news, but scratched it from his mind.   
  
"I really wish," Brock sighed, "I had gotten to know him better." He stared at the headstone with the intricately carved Watchers' Society Seal on it below the name Tracey K. Sketchit.   
  
"He was a good friend," whispered Ash, "much like you in many ways."  
  
"And her." Brock added, nodding toward the stone on his left, the one bearing the name Myamoto Lillis.  
  
"I knew her best," James sighed, placing a single longstem red rose upon the grave, "The bravest person I've ever met. If Jessie's true mother...w-was really like her, I can understand why she never got over losing her as a child. She used to tell me a little bit about her time growing up, and she never completely got over the disappearance. This whole mess-we've all changed, but Jessie, oh, it's broken her..."  
  
James fell silent, a tear streaming down his left cheek.   
  
"Have you heard the philosophers' debates over the Jennys?" Misty asked, "That one guy-saying that he believes a clone cannot truly have a soul?"  
  
"Idiot!" James hissed. "Myamoto-the Myamoto I knew...was a woman with a brilliant soul."  
  
James sighed. "I have to go now." He pulled a white rose from his parka pocket and handed it to Misty. "For your friend." He said, glancing at Tracey's grave. Then he walked back to his car. As he drove out of the cemetery, something caught his eye, the silhouette of a man...standing at a particular gravesite. He glanced out the window again and the man was gone.   
  
"It couldn't be." James thought, no one ever came to honor HIM, even on this dark anniversary. The man had left no known family.   
  
James recalled the riot his burial had caused two years ago...  
  
This cemetery, The IronGate, was a field of honor. People who had earned some kind of special honor in their lives or by their deaths were buried here. This was the place where many police officers that had been killed in the line of duty were interred.   
  
A collective funeral for Myamoto Lillis, Jennifer Justicia, and Tracey Sketchit was held here...to honor them for their sacrifice in trying to bring down the "smuggling operation" of Team Rocket. A riot was nearly caused by Tracey's Scyther when it was let out of its pokeball to say goodbye. Not accepting that it's master was gone, it moaned and ran around trying to cut everybody down with it's blades...the beast was tranquilized by the nearest Pokemon Control, only then it returned to the pokeball in the hand of its former master's aunt.   
  
Further disruption was caused...when a group of people came with the casket of Giovanni. The people present for the triple funeral demanded to know why HE was being buried in this honorary place, and on that day-it was a horrible insult to the three whom it was known that HE had killed. Groundskeepers explained that the plot had been paid for...rather richly...and that the burial could not be denied.   
  
James burned with anger...but there was nothing that could be done about it, so the once Head of Team Rocket lay amongst the honored, amongst the very same people he had slain.   
  
As James mused about the past, and about the man he thought he had seen standing in the rain at Giovanni Sakaki's tomb, he soon found himself at the gates of Clemont Memorial Mental Institution. He told the gatekeeper his name and purpose-and was let inside the grounds to park.   
  
He walked into the main lobby, to find Mondo and Meowth sitting in plastic chairs there. "They won't let us in!" Mondo said to James as soon as he saw the blue-haired man step through the door.   
  
"Won't let you in!? I demand to know why!" James said, first to Mondo, then to the nurse at the front desk.   
  
"Which patient are you here to see?" she asked. The nurse here was olive skinned with indigo hair-not a Joy, like at the Pokemon Centers.  
  
"Jessica Lillis, ID number 776235." James replied.  
  
"No," the nurse said, "not letting anybody in to see her today..."  
  
"Why!!?" James nearly screamed, slamming his fist down on the desk. Small curls of blue lightning arched off his knuckles. The nurse stared at him, clearly frightened.  
  
"Sir, if you don't calm down, I'm going to have to call security. I already explained it to your friends over there, and given them the appropriate paperwork to go over. If her condition improves, you give us those papers as soon as you fill them out...and we can call you. Her doctors said that she can't have visitors today."  
  
James resigned himself to sit down next to Mondo and Meowth. This was the first time, he had hoped, that he could at least hold Jessie's hand since his "splicing". The last time he had visited her, 2 months ago (according to Clemont's limited visitation policies) he didn't have quite enough control over his electric impulses to touch someone in complete safety. He would not have killed her, but she definitely would have been given some painful burns.  
  
Meowth crawled over Mondo's blue-jeaned thigh and looked James directly in the eyes. "Dey won't let us in...'cause...she's gone batty again."  
  
"I'll explain this," Mondo began. "She was in the group area, like they've been letting her go to for the past few months...since she's been doing so well. Anyway, last Wednesday, the TV was on in there. She saw the news...about the Jennys. That's what the doctors and the nurse over there says. They say she started screaming hysterically and grabbing things and throwing them at everybody."  
  
James sighed, a tear welling up in the corner of his eye. Mondo continued.   
  
"A couple of the security boys grabbed her...sedated her, and her doctors are not letting her out of her room...only for 'necessary evaluations' or something...and they are not letting her into visitation, even for us."  
  
"Why didn't anyone call us?" James asked.  
  
"Their wretched bureaucracy," Mondo explained, "We didn't have the right paperwork on file for that, apparently."  
  
"How is she..." James whispered, then turned to the nurse at the front desk again, "HOW IS SHE!?" he screamed, his hair standing up out to the sides from the static charges his body was generating.   
  
"Sir, if you don't calm down..."  
  
A pair of moving objects coming down the north hall caught James attention. A man in white uniform was pushing a wheelchair...with a familiar red-haired figure.  
  
"Jessie!" James breathed. He ran down the hall, everyone in the lobby staring. The nurse paged security.   
  
James ran with an aura of blue electric light surrounding him, the man pushing the wheelchair abandoned the patient and ran to save his own skin. James skidded to a halt in front of Jessie and fell to his knees in front of her. She stared off into nothingness, as if she didn't notice him there.  
  
"Jessie?" James cried, the tears down his face free flowing now. "Jessie, dear?"  
  
He gently clasped her hands in his. She stirred, surprised to feel his skin upon hers. She mumbled, then slowly rose from the wheelchair, and James rose with her.  
  
"James? You...can touch me?"  
  
"Yes...now..."  
  
Two security men came up behind him, but the doctor who had been wheeling Jessie was watching from the other end of the hall, he held up his hand in a halting gesture.  
  
"No, this is the first time she's spoken in a week. Let them be."  
  
Jessie hugged James around the waist, and they stood there, James letting Jessie cry into his shoulder while he cried into her long red hair.   
  
Things would never be as they were before the Myamoto Project. Still, James knew that this was the beginning of healing-for Jessie, for him, for all those who had survived through that terrible adventure.  
  
THE END  
  
Shadowcat, August 2000  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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